ksumt93

Thanks for the advice.... You sound like my dad. He will be over helping me do this Saturday, and I am 99% sure he will say the same thing (cringe) Where would I get the plugs? Dad has a tap/threading kit. Thanks for the offer of the manifolds, that is very generous. I am just having nightmares of broken off, old, rusty bolts when I think of changing them out.... Maybe someday.

81pilot

To Mike Ward: BECAUSE...They look like CRAP, and it is thier car, you always have a condescending tone about your posts when someone does something you don't like......get over it, its not your car!

Aldo_45030

jb weld? You could silver solder the tubes once they are crimped over.

Yeller81USNRet

I just removed the belt from mine that drives the smog pump because it was making noise no problems in 8 years.
Ken

edd gordon

I just Tig Welded mine. The pump and all electronics were gone when I bought My 81. I have a small cam and edelbrock performer manifold and a Qjet. Runs great and much quicker then stock 81 and still get 17 mpg.

texas jim

I removed the smog pump, computer, and all other smog components. I installed an air gap manifold, edelbrock carb and headers. I set up the timing and the car runs SO MUCH BETTER. I do still need to re-curve the distributor, but it's like a different car altogether. I do feel that it was well worth the changes, not f/ looks, but f/ the performance and simplification of the under-hood maint. and over-all work.

Don't fool w/ the factory headers, purchase a set of long tube headers and be done w/ it.

Shark Racer

EGR and AIR will not hurt HP, but removing them certainly simplifies the engine bay. Calibrating the carburetor and distributor are much more important than axing these components.

texasbaehr

"After you remove the pipes, and before you put theplugs in you have to remove the short tubes that are sitting inside the holes. They are about 3" long and just sit in the holes. You can get them out by threading a self tapping bolt into them and pull them out. I've never seen it happen, but apparently without air running through them they will get very hot and droop into the exhaust manifold.

Steve g "
Steve, that is correct for the older cast iron headers. The 81 has SS tubular headers and the AIR tubes are brazed into the tubes and only extend about 3/8" into the header tube.
The best soulution is to buy a set of take off 81 headers which you can find cheap on EBay, cut off the tubes and drill out the stubs then take to a weld shop and have them TIG the holes closed then swap the headers. The easy y out is what I did is what a previous post suggested is to put a brass pipe plug in the top of the collector where the AIR fitting screwed in. Don't look great but it works.

Tim81

Why not just put a set of real headers on? I put a set on mine not much trouble at all.

chrisNY

i am going threw the same kinda issue on my 81, a PO decided to remove the AIR pum and EGR seliod, and some strange reason the cruise servo ( i think he did not what he was takin off) so now i am stuck with a "BUBBA'd" mess, at first i was going to replace the pump and selinoid, but dont have the extra cash this year, it gets cold fast here lol. so i decided to leave AIR pipes on the factory shorty's but i really want to clean up the vacuum mess i get stuck with, and i am at a loss on how to re route or what to plug, or just simply remove. i removed the wire hurness for the AIR pump and when i removed the groun from the thermostat housing suprising enough the ECM decided to stop the car from starting (nice lil basic computer (shaking fist at it in the air)), after i figured out to reconect that ground, it came back to life. there is another ground that looked like it went to the back of the block just off the valve cover that is still unhooked, i am think of re grounding this to see if it helps my idle at low speeds ( it sputters a bit when getting up to 30 mph, but not sure it will do more harm, if anyone has any suggestions of how to clean up this mess or the other broken ground it would be great. thanks so much i can send pics to anyone can help, but i cant seem to post them in the post

terry82

The ground wire that you took off was a temp sender for the ecm.the ground wire that is on the back of the head is for your cooling fan.

samdjr74

Hi All,

I'm not trying to bring a thread back for the dead but I'm a little confused by some of the things mentioned here. I pulled my air pump yesterday because it was in the way on what I was working on. I decided not to put it back on. In doing so I capped off the two smog tubes but left them connected to the exhaust manifolds. This was a quick an easy job but I will probably pull them off completely later on. I understand they are screwed in with what looks like a brake line fitting and behind them are the 3" tubes that are pressed in which also need to come out. My question is why are people having to go the great lengths to seal these holes up once the smog tubes and 3" tubes are removed? Couldn't you just screw in the correct size plug into the 8 holes on the exhaust manifold? Or is this only an issue with 81 and up headers? Mine is a 80 and I have cast iron manifolds.

Thanks,
Sam

Senecagreen

Yes you can go to most any hardware store and get pipe plugs to seal up the holes.

The Recessed Allen socket head ones will have the cleanest look.
They are pipe thread

samdjr74

That's what I thought, thanks. I was getting a little confused with people saying that had to either crimp the end, tap the holes or weld them shut.

chrisNY

the 81's had stainless steal shorty headers, not cast, I think that was the problem

qwank

when i had mine capped, I just left to one way valve on pipe and put a rubber cap over it. if the valve is working properly there is no problems.

also, '81s and '82s had stainless manifolds, so the tubes are welded into the manifold, not threaded in like a cast iron manifold.

and the engine looks so much cleaner and is much easier to work on, a plus for people like me who are always tinkering.

barmitch

Ok...I know this is an old thread but I faced the same problem. The key to my removing stuff was a bad smog pump. So..of it all came. As I have the steel shorty headers the issue was to replace, cut, or cap. In the end I decided that I can live with the pipes so I made up a copper cap using 3/4 inch caps and inserts of 3/4 copper cap. The most inner layer inside the cap (yes there are two inner layers) just got trimmed untill it fitted tight on the remaining up stem above the valve. A bit of high temp sealanr and then tapped the cap on. It fits sungly and no leaks. For me I have kept every bolt that come off, all brackets, pump and hoses etc. So, if it ever needs to be resorted to original it will be easy to do. No smog for classic vehicles in the State of Washington. So it works for me. I took the loom wiring that went to the pump and put it inside heat shrink and tied it up under the air cleaner out of sight. Everything else is stock as I have a numbers original car with 28350 miles on it so I will keep it as stock as possible. Runs great and got 20mls a gal on two trips of 430 mls. I run 92 octane as it seems to run better (imagination??)